We all had a relatively good sleep again last night and woke up ready for the day ahead. We were all feeling better acclimatised to the heat which was good. Today's plan: Grand Palace, Khao San Road, Tuk Tuk ride, boat down the river, return to hotel via MRT.
We got up at 9, had another monster breakfast and then headed out. We dropped our stinky clothes off at a laundry on the same road as our hotel, and then headed on the skywalk to the MRT station. We got our tokens to Sanam Chai and this time walked past Wat Pho on the way to the Grand Palace. We arrived at the Grand Palace - me in my floaty new elephant trousers, Matt in his trousers, and Tom in his shorts. We knew there was a chance that Tom would be asked to wear a sarong, but he was happy to do that if it meant he could wear shorts for the rest of the day. He was asked to cover up, so we went in the palace clothing store and he was given a pair of elephant trousers. Although he said he didn't want any, when he tried them on he was really taken with them. They didn't quite go with his WBA shirt - but hey, Tom has never been into colour matching so he didn't care!
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| Some demons! |
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| Lots of gold |
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| Decoration on the temple of the emerald Buddha |
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| A demon guardian |
We walked into another compound full of overly ornate buildings - loads of glittering gold, ornate rooves, scary looking demons etc. Plenty to see and discover. We went to the building of the emerald buddha and spent some time inside enjoying the shade and the very lovely ornate building it was in. We, of course had to remember no shoes, no hats, don't point your feet to the buddha, no photos, and be quiet. Think we managed ok, there were plenty of security around to tell you if you were doing it wrong!
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| Lots of elephants! |
We came out of the temple complex to find the Grand Palace, made me happy as there were elephants outside it. We took some time to look at it and then decided to exit and find a tuk tuk to take us to Khao San Road. Both Matt and I had been there in the 1990s as backpackers (at different times) and wanted to go back to see what had become of it. We got there and were slightly disappointed to find it was pretty quiet, clean and (almost) pedestrianised. Neither of us got any memory jogs from the place at all!
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| In the tuk tuk |
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| Tuk Tuk Selfie |
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| Mocktails in a bar in Khao San Road |
Oh well, we found a bar to have a mocktail and then did a bit of shopping. Sling bag for me, a rather splendid looking toy Tuk Tuk for Tom and a T-shirt for Matt. We then got another tuk tuk to Phra Arthit Pier from which we got an orange flag express boat down the Chao Phraya river. This was fun: the boats don't hang about, so you have to jump on/off quite quickly. It was nice to see the city from another point of view and to get the wind in our hair (and river water in our face - we clamped our mouths shut!). The river was busy with all types of craft whizzing up and down it. We got off at Rajinee to get the MRT back to Sukhumvit. We are beginning to suss this city and its transport out!
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| Khao San Road today - clean, quiet, tidy? |
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| Our boat |
We had a quick dip in the swimming pool on our return, just to cool down and then headed back to the room to catch up on our various chores: scrapbook for Tom, this for me and photos for Matt. We then headed out for tea at Pier 21. One thing we didn't notice yesterday was how cheap it is: most meals were around the £1 mark. Matt and Tom had roast duck, roast pork and belly pork with rice and sauce, I had stewed pork, pork intestines, pork crackling, rice, green veggies, boiled egg and gravy - it was very nice. We had to put money on a pre-payment card to pay for the dishes, as we had some left over, we then shared a pudding of coconut rice and mango which was really nice. The 3 meals, with drinks and dessert came to £6.20 in total - bargain!
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| Lovely bar |
We had another look around the shopping centre, we may have bought some donuts from Mr Donut and then we headed back to the hotel via a rather lovely bar that is on our road for a couple of mocktails (Tom and I) and a beer for Matt. All in all a good day: we have all acclimatised to the heat a lot better today which has helped with the sightseeing as we could do a lot more. It was a fun day with lots of different transport types, a bit of culture and some memory (or no memory) lane.
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